Teaching Modern Foreign Languages

Just thought it might be useful if I comprise a list of useful websites (etc) that can be used when teaching PMFL. I've tried to put a teaching idea with each resource. Let me know what you think.


Radio Lingua Network Podcasts

Radio Lingua produce a variety of podcasts which are brilliant for those of us who are not entirely confident in our pronunciation. Having learnt french through school, I found the coffee break Spanish podcast brilliant for updating my own subject knowledge prior to lessons. Most of the podcasts come in 20 minute sessions targeted at improving your language skills. Plus the main podcasts are free :)

Coffee Break French Podcast
Coffee Break Spanish Podcast


Pearson Primary Youtube Channel

This youtube channel offers a variety of videos for use in the primary school across the curriculum. I've used this video (Basic Greetings Video) as a way to reinforce a unit of work on basic greetings and numbers in french. The children loved it.

Primary Resources

Primary resources offer so many useful resources for teaching languages in the primary school. I once used the colour flashcards to help me introduce the french colours to the children. Having put a variety of coloured objects into a feely bag, the children in turn pulled out an object and put it with the correct flashcard. Each time I reinforced the vocabulary for the colour and encouraged the children to repeat. I did a similar activity with children with SEN, using fewer colours. This worked really well and the children were able to repeat and remember up to 4 colours.
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/mfl/mfl_french.htm

Dot to Dot Activity

When introducing children to numbers in a language, i found that using a dot to dot activity was a great way to reinforce learning. I used the simple 1-5 and 1-10 dot to dots from here, printed them out, covered the numbers with little pieces of paper and wrote the french or Spanish numbers over the top. Once photocopied, these looked great and the children really enjoyed the activity (how often do KS2 get to do dot to dots at school?) Plus it was a lot quicker than trying to find a ready made one or trying to edit it on the computer! To extend this activity, I told children who had finished to colour their picture using certain colours. This revised the work they had done previously.

 



Colouring Activities

I found these colouring pages for lower ability or really young children which can be printed off to create their own french colouring book. This could be used to reinforce teaching of colours as children are encouraged to colour the page in the correct colour. These pages give the children the colour in English and french.

 


The same site also has 6 colour by numbers in french which can be used with higher ability or older children. These are ready to print and only give you the colour in french which is great as a way of assessing their progress in the topic. available here

 


French Songs

There are a lot of french songs available from here. The only problem is that the majority of the site is in french.

Planning MFL

If you are really stuck for ideas on what to teach I have found some suggested schemes of work. These schemes include assessment sheets and flashcards and are well worth a quick look.

Primary Spanish Scheme of Work here
Primary French Scheme of Work here

First Aid in Schools - Teach the Difference

Every year, up to 150,000 people die in a situation where first aid could have given them a chance to live (SJA, No Date). St John Ambulance have recently released a brilliant resource 'Teach the Difference' which shows teachers how they can incorporate the teaching of life saving First Aid skills into the National Curriculum. They offer a variety of free resources including lesson plans, powerpoints and worksheets.

Teach the Difference Website

 Not convinced of the importance of teaching children some basic first aid? Read these stories about how children as young as 5 were the difference between a life saved and a life lost.

Young First Aider of the Year Awards

Interactive ICT Games for use in Maths

With ICT becoming more important in the primary school I have comprised a list of links to suitable interactive games to be used in maths lessons. enjoy :)

Number Facts Bingo
An interactive version of bingo which can be easily differentiated. Tests pupils on a range of skills from number bonds to 10, to times table facts. Includes to option to download bingo cards.

Interactive Venn Diagram
A interactive Venn Diagram resource which requires pupils to sort a group of numbers according to whether they are a multiple of 2 or 3.  - doesn't allow differentiation

Number Pyramid Game
A fantastic resource which can be easily differentiated in which children have to reach the top of the pyramid by adding together 2 adjacent numbers.

Mostly Postie - Reading Weighing Scales
The children drag a parcel onto the weighing scales, read the scale accurately and enter the value to help the Postman deliver his parcels. Scales can be differentiated

Fraction Flag
A game to help children understand that fractions can be represented in different ways. Can be differentiated. The children have to colour in the flag using the correct fraction of a colour.

Pay For It - Money Game
An interactive game where the children scan an item to find out its price and then use the coins to pay for it. Can be differentiated - There are 5 levels with prices up to £2

Builder Ted - Ordering Decimals
The children have to order to bricks from smallest to largest to help Ted climb the ladder and reach his dog. Can be differentiated - has 3 level options

Number Invaders - Percentages of a number
The children must pop the balloon with the answer to a percentage question on it. Can be differentiated to focus on different percentages

Calendar Clowns
An interactive calendar which asks the children questions such as 3 days after the 3rd. Once a question is answered the answer is covered, meaning the game gets slowly harder. If all questions answered correctly a certificate is available to print.

Teacher Dodgeball - number facts
Rearrange the numbers and operation signs to hit the teacher with a dodgeball. Gradually gets harder.

Pac Man Maths
Solve the equation and move the pac man to eat the correct ghost. gets gradually harder

Shape Carroll Diagram
An interactive Carroll diagram where the children sort shapes.

Billy Bug Coordinates
Move Billy the bug to the correct coordinates to feed him. - Teaching children to read and plot coordinates in the 1st quadrent

Looking for something in particular? Check out these sites:

http://www.mrnussbaum.com/mathgames.htm
http://www.maths-games.org/times-tables-games.html
http://www.mathszone.co.uk/
http://www.ictgames.com/
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/interactive.htm

I will update this list if I find anything else. Let me know if you find anything worth adding.

Guided Work To Scaffold Children's descriptive Writing

Following a shared reading activity where we identified the key features of a piece of descriptive writing, I worked with the higher ability children to encourage them to think about all 5 senses. I gave the children various pictures of settings with visual reminders of the senses and a small post it note each.

Worksheets available to download from Here 5 snowy settings in total
(I do not own the rights to the pictures used, I found them on google - credit goes to those who took them)

The children each drew a representation of themselves on a post it and placed themselves into the picture. I then encouraged them to think carefully about what they could see, hear, taste, feel and smell in the location. The children together wrote descriptive phrases for each sense around the photograph. Physically putting themselves into the location worked really well and the improvement in the level of independent writing that followed was significant.



Teaching Children to Read Coordinates

When planning lessons for a year 4 class to introduce them to reading and plotting coordinates I found that although there were lots of brilliant worksheets to engage the children once the teaching was complete, there were only a few interactive resources for the actual teaching process.I created a PowerPoint containing a pirate looking for his treasure (I then copied the slides into the school IWB software). The children named the pirate and then physically moved him on the IWB to reach different locations on the map, counting how many steps across and how many steps up he had to go each time. We then discussed how to represent these movements as a coordinate, emphasising the two numbers should be written inside brackets and separated by a comma.

I found it was not necessarily the lower ability children who struggled with this topic and so had to readjust my groups accordingly. I worked with the children who struggled giving each of them a printed version of the map and a small pirate. Together we worked at moving the pirate to different coordinates. When the children moved onto independent work, I allowed them to continue to use their pirates. Physically moving the pirate on the worksheet allowed the children to think carefully about the steps involved and as a result their work improved.

I feel this initial introduction to coordinates benefited the children enormously as by the end of the week the majority of the class were plotting and reading coordinates in all 4 quadrants, something my school mentor had told me was above the ability of a year 4 class and was more appropriate to year 6. To me this reinforced the importance of having high standards of your pupils and believing in their ability. By setting them challenging work, the children were able to achieve a much higher standard of work.

Power Point slides shown below and available to download from Here